Microsoft’s New Digital Broadcast Manager Enables Next Wave of E-Commerce

June 12, 2000
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NEW YORK, June 12, 2000 — Today at the Streaming Media East 2000 Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Digital Broadcast Manager, the first product to offer an integrated solution for securing, managing and selling digital audio and video content for e-commerce. As part of this announcement, over 25 content and application service providers including House of Blues Digital Inc., NASCAR, e-Media, iBEAM Broadcasting Corp. and NaviSite Inc. today announced their adoption of Digital Broadcast Manager as their digital media e-commerce solution.

Today companies that want to conduct digital media e-commerce need to develop costly custom solutions before they can get started. Digital Broadcast Manager is designed to help remove this critical roadblock facing the entertainment and content industry by providing a single solution to help them secure, track, manage and sell content on the Internet, including pay-per-view streamed video events such as concerts and sporting events, pay-per-download music tracks and live webcasts. This new solution removes the barriers to entry for digital media e-commerce while taking full advantage of Microsoft® Windows Media™
Technologies, the industry’s most scalable and reliable streaming technology and only integrated rights-management solution.

“Digital Broadcast Manager delivers the first turnkey solution to unlock the potential of digital media e-commerce,”
said Dave Fester, general manager of marketing in the Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
“We’re gratified by the support of more than 25 content and application service providers that join us today in pioneering the next wave of e-commerce on the Web.”

Digital Media E-Commerce a Reality Today

More than 25 content and service providers have rapidly adopted Digital Broadcast Manager as their digital media e-commerce solution. For example, Digital Broadcast Manager allows NASCAR to sell virtual attendance to national races and events through pay-per-view services, and House of Blues Digital has already deployed test versions of the new software for distributing live pay-per-view concerts and music events.

“At NASCAR, we see digital media as a great way to better connect with our fans and open up new revenue opportunities,”
said Joe Nemechek, NASCAR driver.
“Microsoft’s Digital Broadcast Manager enables my team, Nemco Motorsports, to offer our fans a unique, behind-the-scenes look at racing using pay-per-view streamed digital video on our Web site.”

“As a pioneer in the development and delivery of pay-per-view video on the Web, we worked to build a solution that could solve key challenges our clients face in selling their content on the Web,”
said Michael Terretta, CTO of e-Media.
“Our experience enabled us to work closely with Microsoft on the development of Digital Broadcast Manager to ensure that it solved these challenges, and we have depended on early versions of this technology over the past two years for some of our most high-profile events like pay-per-view sports entertainment and concerts.”

Microsoft’s Digital Broadcast Manager provides a complete solution, built on Windows Media Technologies, that allows both content and service providers to quickly and easily implement new business models and sell music, video and other forms of digital media on the Web. The rapid acceptance by content and hosting providers has been fueled by Digital Broadcast Manager’s ability to meet critical customer needs for business-to-consumer e-commerce, giving companies the power to do the following:

Convert digital media content into secure marketable products such as live pay-per-view concerts, streamed video events, on-demand or streamed movie purchases, digital music sales, music previews and more

Transform a Web site into a digital media e-commerce storefront

Ensure secure authentication and authorization of customers

Manage and respond to customer needs through an integrated report manager that tracks customer and product sales trends

Digital Broadcast Manager Pricing and Availability

Content providers or application service providers can acquire and download Digital Broadcast Manager from the Internet. Pricing includes a small, one-time activation fee of $495, and a usage fee of $0.10 per transaction, billed monthly. Usage fees have a yearly cap, with all transactions free after customers have exceeded 1.5 million transactions in a 12-month period.

Digital Broadcast Manager requires Windows NT® Server 4.0 or Windows® 2000 Server, Site Server Commerce Edition and SQL Server™
(acquired separately), and is scheduled to be available for download on June 19. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/dbm/ .

About Windows Media

Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated rights-management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation, and the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 24 languages, is the fastest-growing media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft, Windows Media, Windows NT and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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